Wanczyk, 53, bought the ticket at the Pride Station & Store in Chicopee, Mass. Her financial windfall will go down in the record books, too: she collected the largest single-ticket jackpot in Powerball history.

The enormity of what's happened casts a large shadow over Wanczyk. "I am a winner and I'm scared, but I'll be okay," she said.

Wanczyk, a mother of two, will pay off a car and then chill out with her newfound wealth. As for how she came up with the numbers, she says she selected based on birthdays, her lucky number four and the always risky random choices.

Whatever her method, Wanczyk quite literally defied the odds: the chances of getting all six numbers are a staggering one-in-292.2 million. The numbers for Wednesday's drawing, by the way, were 6, 7, 16, 23 and 26, while the Powerball, was 4.

Wanczyk learned she had won when a friend told her the numbers. The realization that she had instantly moved up a few dozen tax brackets numbed her. "I couldn't drive anywhere, I couldn't do anything," she said.

And, no, she does not intend to continue working. She already informed her boss at the medical where she used to work that she was quitting.

In addition to the big prize, Massachusetts also claims two other $1 million winning tickets, while three dozen other people also won a million bucks by hitting on five of the six numbers.